Contents

1. NEWS

The Global Fund may reduce funding for Nigeria’s HIV and TB grants by more than $5 million due to problems in recovering amounts that Nigeria owes as a result of an OIG audit and investigation in 2011. The Nigeria country coordinating mechanism is appealing to the government to help pay the amounts owing.

2. COMMENTARY

The Global Fund should be more open about the changes it is considering making to the allocations methodology for 2017-2019, David Garmaise says. So far, no information has been made public concerning the options that are being reviewed. There is little time left for discussion.

3. ANALYSIS

Attaining the new Sustainable Development Goal for health and well-being will be very expensive. For example, the estimated price tag for achieving the target of ending AIDS by 2030 is $36 billion a year, almost twice the current funding level of $19 billion. The upcoming Global Fund replenishment will be critical to meeting the funding gap.

4. NEWS

The World Health Organization has revised its HIV guidelines to recommend that anyone who tests positive for the virus should be treated immediately. Experts welcomed the new guidelines but warned that fulfilling them would require a substantial cash injection and an overhaul of current strategies.

5. NEWS

The Office of the Inspector General found evidence of fraudulent practices and other procurement irregularities on the part of the principal recipient for an HIV grant to Egypt, which compromised contracts worth $668,877.

6. NEWS

An audit conducted in 2015 by the Office of the Inspector General of grants to Pakistan found that internal controls over programmatic activities were generally effective, but that there are considerable weaknesses in implementation arrangements, financial management, and procurement and supply chain management.

7. NEWS

Transitioning away from Global Fund support is as much about ensuring that national systems are ready to assume responsibility for the programs the Fund used to support as it is about money. This was one of the conclusions of a dialogue on transitioning in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

9. ANNOUNCEMENT

The Developed Country NGO Delegation is seeking nominations for its representative on the Global Fund Board.

WHO calls for treatment for all people living with HIV

4. NEWS

1 Oct 2015

Author:

David Garmaise

Implementing the recommendation will require dramatically increased financial support from donors and governments

The World Health Organization has revised its HIV guidelines to recommend that anyone who tests positive for the virus should be treated immediately.

The WHO had previously said doctors should wait to treat some people with HIV until their immune systems suggested they were getting sick. The WHO said the new recommendations are based on recent trials that have found early treatment “keeps people with HIV alive, healthier and reduces the risk of transmitting the virus.”

The Associated Press reported that the new guidance means that all 37 million people with HIV globally should be offered immediate treatment, “a prospect that may be unrealistic in poor countries, where many patients are still unable to get medicines.” Last year, only about 15 million people with HIV were being treated.

Experts welcomed the new guidelines but warned that fulfilling them would require a substantial cash injection and an overhaul of current strategies. One expert said that HIV treatment would have to move out of clinics and into the communities where people live.

The WHO and UNAIDS estimated that implementing the new guidelines could avert 21 million AIDS deaths and prevent 28 million new infections by 2030.

Global Fund executive director Mark Dybul told the BBC that “the recommendations are critically important to moving us towards the fast-track treatment and prevention goals. We must embrace the ambition if we are going to end HIV as a public health threat.”

Médecins Sans Frontières told Reuters that the WHO's “treat-all” plan will prevent many HIV-positive people in poorer countries from falling through the treatment net. MSF said its experience showed that a third of people who were diagnosed with HIV, but not eligible to start treatment, never returned to the clinic. MSF warned, however, making the new recommendation a reality would require dramatically increased financial support from donors and governments.